Relief paste-up process



April 1963 A. M. WOODS 3,086,462

RELIEF PASTE-UP PROCESS Filed May 19, 1961 3 Sheet 5 l FIG.I.

NVENTQR ATTORNEY April 23, 1963 A. M. WOODS 3,086,462

RELIEF PASTE-UP PROCESS Filed May 19, 1961 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR FIG Allen M. Woods ATTORNEY April 23, 1963 A. M. WOODS 3,086,462

RELIEF PASTE-UP PROCESS Filed May 19, 1961 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR Allen M. Woods ATTORNEY United States Patent ()fiice 3,086,462 Patented Apr. 23, 1963 York Filed May 19, 1961, Ser. No. 111,374 8 Claims. (Cl. 101-4011) This invention relates to the art of printing and particularly to a method for composing assemblies of relief elements from which stereotypes and other printing plates can be made, or which can be used directly as printing plates, and to the assemblies so produced.

:In the printing industry generally, and especially in printing newspapers and the like, the composing of relief elements into an assembly in accordance with a typographers layout has long posed serious problems when the layout calls not only for engravings or stereotype flat castings but also for lines of type. As produced by the usual Linotype machines, for example, lines of type are in the form of cast metal slugs of substantial depth from type face to rear face and, because of their substantial depth, can be composed only by being surrounded tightly with spacing materials, in a manner requiring much labor and skill, so that they can be locked in the conventional chase. If other relief elements, such as electrotype plates, are involved, they must be provided with relatively thick backings in order to allow proper handling in the chase, and the entire assembly is cumbersome, heavy and relatively inconvenient to handle. Accordingly, the printing industry has long sought a more convenient way to compose printingelements, including type, into an assembly.

While prior-art workers have made various proposals to improve the art of composing with type, most of these proposals have involved stereotyping as an intermediate or preliminary step before composing. Thus, for example, it has been suggested that the lines of type be cast in the usual form andassembled and locked up in a conventional chase, with or without other kinds of printing elements, and that the elements so assembled then be reproduced in the form of thin metal plaquettes, the plaquettes being suitable for convenient composing of a thin assembly in accordance with the layout. While this proposal has the advantage of providing thin relief elements, derived at least in part from type, it has the disadvantage that use of the chase and of stereotyping are still required.

A general object of the invention isto provide a method for composing relief elements, particularly including lines of type, into a thin assembly in accordance with a typographers layout, without requiring the use of a chase or the like and without employing stereotyping or equivalent procedures to reproduce the lines of type.

Another object is to devise such" a method employing the type faces themselves in the finished assembly.

A further object is to provide a composing method of such nature that type faces, formed conventionally by a Linotype or equivalent machine, are composed in registry over a typographers layout to provide a thin assembly.

Yet another object is to devise an improved, thin assembly of relief printing elements, useful either for conversion (as by stereotype) into a form for actual printing or directly as a printing plate.

Stated broadly, method embodiments of the present invention are based onthe steps of severing the type faces from slugs of type or the like produced in conventional fashion, in such manner that only a small thickness of the body material of the type remains to support the type faces, and then securing the severed type faces to a support in positions selected in accordance with the typographers layout. In accordance with a typical form of the method, the lines of type are formed from type metal on the usual Linotype machine and are then arranged typeface-up in galley form. A sheet of material coated with a pressure sensitive adhesive is then adhered to all of the type faces. The galley may, for example, include all of the type foran entire layout, with the lines of type being grouped and spaced in accordance with the copy. Accordingly, the adhesive sheet-can be severed between adjacent groups, so that the lines of type forming each group can now be picked up and handled, with the adhesive sheet still adhered to the type faces.

Each group of lines of type is then locked in the work holder of a saw adapted to shear all of the lines of type in a common plane parallel to the plane of the type faces, and the saw is operated to cut completely through the bodies of all of the lines of type so that only a vary thin portion of the body material remains as a backing for the type face. Sheared off in this manner, the type faces remain adhered to the adhesive sheet and therefore retain the spacing, established in the galley, desired for the finished assembly.

A suitable support is provided for the final assembly, the support being so related to the layout relief elements, such as the group of thin lines of type provided by the sawing operation, can be disposed on the support in the position dictated by the layout. The group of thin lines of type recovered from the sawing operation is then placed in proper position on the support and secured thereto, after which the adhesive sheet is stripped from the type faces. In turn, the type faces are sheared from all of the groups of lines of type and mounted on the support, the adhesive sheet in each case serving to preserve the grouping and alignment of the lines of type until after the same have been secured to the support.

Other relief elements, such as illustrations in the form of stereotypes, for example, border rules, etc., are secured to the support in the positions determined by the layout. The finished product is thus a simple, convenient and easily handled assembly, the thickness and weight of which are determined mainly by the nature of the support selected, rather than being dictated by the character of type slugs and the nature of a chase, for example.

In order that the invention can be understood in detail, reference is had to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a conventional copy layout, for a full page newspaper advertisement, supported on a layout table;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a galley of type slugs, illustrating application of a sheet of pressure sensitive adhesive film to the type faces in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of agroup of type slugs from the galley of FIG. 2, with the adhesive film applied thereto, clamped in a shearing saw during shearing off of thin lines of type in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 3, after completion of the shearing operation, illustrating manual recovery of the sheared-off thin lines of type as a group;

FIG. 5 is a'perspective view, similar to FIG. 1, illustrating a transparent support sheet registered over the copy layout and manual application of the group of lines of type recovered in FIG. 4; and

FIG. 6 is a perspective view, similar to FIG. '5 but on simpler scale, illustrating the supportsheet after the group of lines of type has been applied and the adhesive film removed from the type faces.

The drawings illustrate one embodiment of the invention as applied to composing relief elements, particularly including type, into a complete assembly for a full page news-paper advertisement in accordance with the layout 1 of the advertisement. In accordance with this embodiment, all of the lines of type required by the layout are first cast conventionally as metal type slugs 2, and the type is assembled on galley 3, FIG. 2. The slugs are arranged in groups as dictated by the copy and separated by spacers 4 to provide the spacing desired in the final assembly.

A flexible sheet 6, bearing a continuous film of pressure sensitive adhesive on one side, is then laid over the type, adhesive side down, in such manner that the single sheet 6 extends across the type faces presented by all of the slugs 2. Sheet 6 is then forced into firm engagement with the type faces by means of a rubber or other resilient roller 7, as will be clear from FIG. 2, the roller being passed over all of the type under manual pressure so that a firm adhesive bond is established between sheet 6 and the type faces despite the fact that the surfaces of the type are inherently irregular.

Advantageously, sheet 6 is of the conventional type employing a thin, transparent base film of cellophane, for example, coated with any of the pressure sensitive adhesive mixtures, such as a blend of an elastomeric polymer with a compatible resin such as the coumarone resins. The entire adhesive sheet is essentially transparent, so that the type faces are clearly visible. Thus, the operator is able to sever the sheet 6 along lines each between adjacent groups of type slugs, so that the groups of type slugs can now be handled individually.

The body portions 2 of a first group of the type slugs, still held in proper spaced relation by the adhesive sheet 6, are now clamped in the work holder 8 of power saw 9, FIG. 3, in such position that the type faces of this group of type slugs is spaced forwardly (as viewed), by a distance equal to the height of the relief portion of the type plus a small fraction of an inch, from the plane of the circular blade 10 of the saw. The saw illustrated being of the reciprocating work holder type, work holder 8 is now moved to the right, causing the rotating blade 10 to shear the type faces, plus a thin section of the body material of the type slugs, from the main bodies of the slugs. Hence, thin lines of type 2 FIG. 4, are recovered from the sawing operation, sheet 6 remaining adhered to the type faces.

Layout 1, made on a sheet of material capable of passing light, is placed on an illuminated surface, such as the top of a conventional light table T, FIG. 1. An essentially transparent, self-supporting, thin support sheet 11 is superposed on the layout. Sheet 11 is provided on its upper surface with a continuous coating of a pressure sensitive adhesive, the sheet being transparent, even though adhesive coated, so that the details of the layout can be observed through the support sheet. In this instance, sheet 11 is rectangular and is registered relative to the rectangular plan of the layout 1 by means of angle 12.

The thin lines of type 2', sheared from the main body of slugs 2 by saw 9 and still maintained in the spacing desired in the finished copy by the portion of sheet 6 adhered to the type faces thereof, are now placed in their proper positions on the adhesive sheet 11, the sheared rear faces of lines of type 2' engaging and adhering to the adhesive top surface presented by the support sheet. Advantageously, application of lines of type 2 to the support sheet is accomplished with the aid of tool 13, as illustrated in FIG. 5. Tool 13 includes a handle 14 and a generally rectangular body portion 15 fixed to the lower end of the handle, body portion 15 extending at such an angle to the handle that, when the handle is held in a normal generally upright position, the fiat bottom face of body portion 15 is parallel to the top surface of support sheet 11. The bottom face of body portion 15 is provided with pressure sensitive adhesive, as by applying thereto a strip of tape coated on both surfaces with adhesive. Accordingly, by pressing the bottom face of body 15 downwardly upon the plain surface of the portion of sheet 6 adhered to the lines of type 2', the portion of sheet 6 is adhesively attached to the body of tool 13 so that the tool can be manipulated manually to pick up the group of lines of type in the manner illustrated in FIG. 5. It will be noted that, because the bottom face of body portion 15 is flat, the lines of type 2 are held securely in that spaced relation desired for the final assembly. In this regard, it will be understood that the portion of sheet 6 adhered to the lines of type, though flexible, is effective to determine the desired spacing between the lines of type because, during application of the tool 13, the fiat bottom surface of body portion 15 thereof causes the portion of sheet 6 to be spread out smoothly to its full extent.

Understanding that the layout is visible through transparent support sheet 11, it is only necessary to manipulate tool 13 in such fashion that the lines of type 2 carried thereby are deposited on the top surface of the support sheet in registry with that portion of the layout indicating the desired position for the lines of type. Tool 13 is then removed and the portion of sheet 6 adhered to the lines of type 2* is stripped away, leaving the lines of type adhesively secured to the top face of the support sheet in their proper positions. Thus, the finished assembly, insofar as this particular group of lines of type is concerned, is as illustrated in FIG. 6. The series of steps explained above is repeated for each group of lines of type, and for any individual lines of type, until all of the type required by the layout 1 have been first reduced to thin form and then applied in their proper positions to the adhesive top surface of support sheet 11.

It will be understood that other relief elements than lines of type are applied to the support sheet in the same manner hereinbefore described. Thus, all illustrations, border rules, and the like are applied to the support sheet and adhesively secured thereto to complete the assembly of relief elements.

Removal of the tool 13, regardless of the relative strength of the adhesive which secures the same to the surface of sheet 6, is easily accomplished simply by applying manual pressure to the lines of type 2 or the like while the tool is lifted away. The adhesive sheet 6 is of course easily stripped from the type faces simply by grasping a free edge portion of the sheet and peeling the sheet away from the lines of type. When desired, the removal of both tool 13 and sheet 6 can be facilitated by employing a more tenacious adhesive on the surface of support sheet 11 than is used on sheet 6 and on the tool. Support 11 can be of any suitable material and configuration and need not, in all cases, be either thin or transparent. In the case of opaque supports, the type groups can be located in their proper positions by measurements, relating one to another, or the images in the layout can be established on the support, to guide application of the relief elements, in any suitable way, as by optical projection. It will be understood by those skilled in the art, however, that particular advantages arise from the use of a thin, essentially transparent sheet as the support in the manner shown and described.

The use of a thin sheet as the support provides a finished assembly which is both light and convenient to handle. Use of an essentially transparent support sheet allows the user to simply place the sheet over the layout, observing the layout through the sheet during the steps of applying the lines of type and other relief elements.

Support sheet 11 can be, for example, a relatively rigid sheet of an optically clear, resinous composition based on any of the methyl methacrylate polymers. The use of resinous materials of such excellent optical clarity is not, of course, essential and it will be understood that any other materials, such as those based on cellulose acetate and the acetate-butyrates, can be employed.

Distinct advantages accrue from the relative thinness of the relief elements secured to the support and from the thinness of the support itself. Typically, the sawing operation described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4 can be carried out in such manner that the thickness of the thin lines of type 2 is in the range of from a few hundredths of an inch to about one-tenth of an inch, particularly good results having been attained when the blade of the saw is disposed so close to the type faces that the total thickness of the lines of type is on the order of 0.065 inch, which is the standardthickness of metal engravings. Support sheet 11 can vary markedly in thickness, depending upon the particular material of which the sheet is made. Thus, the sheet 11 can be a very thin but self-supporting sheet of metal, or it can be a plastic sheet of a thickness in the range of 0.10-0.25 inch, for example.

Advantageously, the adhesive coating on the support 11 can be established by conventional transfer procedures. Transfer adhesive sheeting, consisting of a paper web bearing on one surface a pressure sensitive adhesive film which can be stripped from the web with relative ease, is commercially available for this purpose. In use, a portion of the sheeting is spread upon a supporting surface, adhesive side up, and the support, such as the transparent sheet 11, is then pressed into firm and uniform engagement with the adhesive, as by use of a manual roller. A tenacious bond having been'thus established between the sheet 11 and the adhesive carried by the transfer sheet, the paper Web of the transfer sheet is now stripped away, leaving the adhesive as a continuous film on the surface of sheet v11. Alternatively, the adhesive surface can be applied to support 11 in the form of a transparent cellophane or like film coated on both surfaces with pres sure sensitive adhesive, one face of the film being adhered to the surface of support 11 and the other exposed.

, The use of conventional pressure sensitive adhesives throughout the method, as described in detail hereinbefore, is advantageous in that it eliminates time delays which would otherwise be required, as in waiting for other types of adhesives to dry or set. It will be understood, however, that the method of this invention can be practiced with other adhesives than the commonly available pressure sensitive ones. In particular, such materials as the quick curing epoxy resin adhesives are advantageous because of their unusually good capabilities for bonding metal. Conventional water soluble adhesives can be employed and have the advantage that support 11 can then be cleaned readily for reuse.

The method of this invention has a distinct advantage of providing a complete assembly of relief elements, including conventionally produced type, without requiring stereotyping or like procedures as' intermediate steps. The

finished assembly is unique in that, though adequately self-supporting, it is unusually light in weight and, as compared to the prior-art assemblies, of such a small thickness as to be far more convenient to handle.

The method has been described in connection with production of a finished assembly which is particularly useful for the production of final stereotype printing plates.

It will be understood, however, that assemblies produced by this method can themselves be used directly as printing plates. In particular, the support 11 can be in the form of a thin, strong sheet of metal or the like capable of being curved to fit the cylinder or a high-speed rotary printing press, and the assembly can thus be used directly as a printing plate for such a press.

Whether used for the production of stereotype plates, or directly as printing plates, assemblies produced in accordance with this method offer the advantage that one or more of the relief elements can be removed or changed with ease. Where the assembly is used directly as a printing plate, this feature provides for changing the plate with a minimum of interruption of the press production run. Similarly, an assembly produced in accordance with this method offers advantages in multi-color printing be cause of the ease of removal and replacement of the individual relief elements. Thus, for example, all of the relief elements for multi-color impression can be assembled on one support, proofed in one color, and selected ones of the elements then removed and assembled on separate supports in accordance with the color separation desired.

The invention is particularly useful in composing such things as full-page advertisements. Employing a relatively thin tranparent sheet as the support element, the support can be superposed over the layout on a light table, in the manner illustrated in FIG. 1, so that all of the detail of the layout is clearly observable through the support sheet. Thus, therelief elements can be applied precisely in their proper positions with utmost ease and facility and without requiring special skill on the part of the person doing the Work.

While the method, and product thereof, have been illustrated and described in illustrative fashion, it will be understood that various changes and modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In the composing of relief elements, including a plurality of lines of type, into assembled form, the method comprising forming the lines of type as slugs of substantial depth from type face to rear face; assembling the lines of type into a group in which the lines have the spacing desired in the finished assembly; applying to type faces of all of the lines of type a single element carrying a pressure sensitive adhesive in such fashion that the single element is secured to the type faces by the adhesive; severing all of the slugs in a common plane located parallel to the type faces and so close thereto that only a small thickness of the body material of the slugs remains to support the type faces; recovering the severed thin lines of type held in the desired spaced relation by the single element; adhesively securing the rear faces of the thin lines of type to the surface of a support sheet; and then removing said single element from the type faces.

2. In the composing of relief elements, including a plurality of lines of type, into assembled form, the method comprising forming the lines of type as slugs of substantial depth from type face to rear face; assembling the lines of typeinto a group in which the lines have the spacing desired in the finished assembly; applying to type faces of all of the lines of type a single element carrying a pressure sensitive adhesive in such fashion that the single element is secured to the type faces by the adhesive; clamping the group of slugs; severing all of the clamped slugs in a'co-inmon plane parallel to the type faces and so close thereto that only a small thickness of the body material of the slugs remains to support the type faces; recovering from said severing step an assembly of thin lines of type held' in the desired spaced relation by the single element still adhesively secured thereto, said lines of type having flat rear faces as a result of the severing step; placing said severed thin lines of type rear face down on a support having an adhesive surface and thereby causing the thin lines of type to be adhesively secured to the support while still in the desired spaced relation; and then removing said single element from the type faces.

3. In the composing of relief elements, including a plurality of lines of type, into assembled form, the method comprising preparing a layout delineating the locations of the relief elements; forming the lines of type as slugs having substantial depth from type face to rear face; assembling the lines of type into a group in which the lines have the spacing desired in the finished assem bly; applying to type faces of all of the lines of type a single adhesive sheet in such manner that the single sheet extends across and is adhesively secured to type faces of all of the lines of type; severing all of the slugs in a common plane parallel to the type faces and so close thereto that only a small thickness of the body material of the slugs remains to support the type faces; recovering from said severing step an assembly of thin lines of type all still adhered to the single adhesive sheet; positioning on the layout a support sheet bearing adhesive on its upper face and of such transparency that the location delineations on the layout are visible through the support sheet; positioning the severed thin lines of type rear face down on the adhesive carried by the support sheet and in registry with the location delineated for the lines of type on the layout; and then stripping the single adhesive sheet from the type faces to leave the thin lines of type adhesively secured to the support sheet with the lines of type occupying their proper location and still having the desired spaced relation.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the thin lines of type are applied to the support sheet by means of a manipulating tool adhesively secured to said single adhesive sheet.

5. In the composing of relief elements, including groups of lines of type, into assembled form, the method comprising forming the lines of type for the assembly as slugs of substantial depth from type face to rear face; placing the slugs type face up in galley form; placing a single pressure sensitive adhesive sheet over type faces of all of the slugs and causing the single sheet to adhere adhesively to the type faces; severing the single sheet along lines between groups of the slugs corresponding to the groups of lines of type to be provided in the final assembly; clamping each such group of slugs and severing all of the slugs of each group in a common plane parallel to the type faces and so close thereto that only a small thickness of the body material of the slugs remains to support the type faces; providing a support sheet having an adhesive surface and of such size as to accommodate all of the relief elements to be composed into the final assembly; placing each group of severed thin lines of type, while the corresponding portion of the pressure sensitive adhesive sheet remains adhered to the type faces thereof, rear face down in its proper position on the adhesive surface of the support sheet and thereby causing the groups of thin lines of type to be adhered to the support sheet with the spacing between lines of type desired in the final assembly; and then removing the portions of the pressure sensitive adhesive sheet from the type faces.

6. In the composing of relief elements, including a plurality of lines of type, into assembled form, the method comprising preparing on a sheet capable of passing light a layout delineating the locations of the relief elements; forming the lines of type as slugs having substantial depth from type face to rear face; assembling the type slugs into a group in which the lines have the spacing determined by the layout; applying to type faces ofall of the slugs in the group a single transparent flexible adhesive sheet in such manner that the single sheet extends across and is adhesively secured to type faces of all of the lines of type; severing all of slugs in a common plane parallel to the type faces and so close thereto that only a small thickness of the body material of the slugs remains to support the type faces; recovering from said severing step an assembly of thin lines of type all still adhered to the single adhesive sheet; positioning the layout on an illuminated surface; positioning over the layout a thin, self-supporting adhesive-coated support sheet capable of passing light and through which the layout is observable; positioning the thin lines of type rear face down on the adhesive carried by the support sheet and in registration with the location delineated for the lines of type on the layout; and then stripping the single adhesive sheet from the type faces to leave the lines of type adhesively secured to the support sheet with the lines of type occupying their proper positions and still having the desired spaced relation.

7. In the composing of lines of type into assembled form, the method comprising forming the lines of type as slugs having substantial depth from type face to rear face; assembling the slugs into a group in which the lines of type have the desired spacing; applying a single thin, flexible sheet bearing pressure sensitive adhesive to the group of slugs in such manner that the sheet extends in essentially flat condition across and is adhesively secured to type faces of all of the lines of type; severing all of the slugs in a common plane parallel to the type faces and so close thereto that only a small thickness of the body material of the slugs remains to support the type faces; recovering from said severing step an assembly of thin lines of type still adhesively secured to the flexible sheet; providing a support member having a flat surface; and applying the thin lines of type to the flat surface of the support member and securing the lines of type thereto while maintaining the flexible sheet in flat condition to assure the desired spacing between the lines of type.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the step of maintaining the flexible sheet in fiat condition during application of the lines of type to the support member is accomplished by temporarily securing the flexible sheet to the flat face of a manipulating tool.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Welch June 26, 1934 Shea Nov. 26, 1935 ing and Manufacturing Company, 1959 (page 9 relied upon). 

1. IN THE COMPOSING OF RELIEF ELEMENTS, INCLUDING A PLURALITY OF LINES OF TYPE, INTO ASSEMBLED FORM, THE METHOD COMPRISING FORMING THE LINES OF TYPE AS SLUGS OF SUBSTANTIAL DEPTH FROM TYPE FACE TO REAR FACE; ASSEMBLING THE LINES OF TYPE INTO A GROUP IN WHICH THE LINES HAVE THE SPACING DESIRED IN THE FINISHED ASSEMBLY; APPLYING TO TYPE FACES OF ALL OF THE LINES OF TYPE A SINGLE ELEMENT CARRYING A PRESSURE SENSITIVE ADHESIVE IN SUCH FASHION THAT THE SINGLE ELEMENT IS SECURED TO THE TYPE FACES BY THE ADHESIVE; SEVERING ALL OF THE SLUGS IN A COMMON PLANE LOCATED PARALLEL TO THE TYPE FACES AND SO CLOSE THERETO THAT ONLY A SMALL THICKNESS OF THE BODY MATERIAL OF THE SLUGS REMAINS TO SUPPORT THE TYPE FACES; RECOVERING THE SEVERED 